Womb cancer

Hi Busybee

Welcome to the Womb group.

I am sorry to hear of your diagnosis of womb cancer. It can knock you sideways when you are first diagnosed and waiting to hear what happens next. I understand why you feel fed up and it is hard to focus on normal everyday life for a while. I felt a bit better once I had a plan for the next steps.

After diagnosis its normal to have a scan- some have CT, some have MRI and the purpose of this is to stage the cancer and see exactly where it is in the body. The biopsy results from your diagnosis will help show the grade of the cancer. Most ladies are offered a hysterectomy and I would expect you to do well with recovering as you are a bit younger than most ladies on here. My hysterectomy was laparoscopic and I had little pain, in hospital for one night and then recovered well at home. My recovery was resting up and not overdoing things. Not lifting anything heavy. But I was able to go for short walks once home from hospital. I could walk to the local shops for instance as long as I didn't carry heavy shopping bags home. 

After surgery anything removed is sent to pathology and then the stage and grade and a few other bits are confirmed. It is these results that are normally used in deciding whether any further treatment is advised. Some ladies with a very low stage and low grade cancer just have surgery. I had chemo and radiotherapy. 

My surgery included removing ovaries and although this is a difficult decision at your age I would tend to agree with you in getting them removed. It would mean possible menopause symptoms, earlier than expected, but there may well be options for managing these. Perhaps give the Support Line a call and talk it through. You don't mention whether you have any children but the nurses could also talk you through the fertility aspect. 

The fear of having any recurrence happens to us all but I suppose its about doing everything possible to lessen the chance. Perhaps talk through with your doctor about the risks of keeping your ovaries vs the risk of them being removed. 

With work, I can understand it is not the best timing with your promotion and training. However if your surgery and recovery is straightforward then it may well be that you can return sooner than expected. Macmillan can give advice on how to talk to work and also how work can support you. I know I found it hard to take time off work and focus on my health- but sometimes it is necessary. 

My surgery was done quickly- 4 weeks after my first symptom- some ladies wait a bit longer. It just depends on your hospital and how busy they are. For me I saw the consultant for the first time on a Friday and had the surgery on the following Monday. 

I will pop a link here to the Endometrial cancer booklet that has some good information. 

Womb cancer booklet | Macmillan Cancer Support

Hope this helps a bit. If there is anything you want to ask about, please do so.

Jane

Hi Jane

Thanks for getting back to me. 

I’ve had an MRI and surgery is booked I’m just finding the closer I am getting the more fed up I am getting and struggling with the day to day. 

Glad to hear you recovered well, sorry to hear you had to have further treatment. At this point it’s looking like it’s low grade, so hoping for the best after it’s removed that it’ll be low stage too. 

I do have one child, and we did discuss fertility, my opinion and what was best for me was to just get it out as quickly as possible. 

I was just worried about the recovery time and the dos and don’t afterwards, one thing I was wondering was did you have to wait a long tine for the results for staging once it was removed?

Thank you for all the info, hope everything is going well for you. 

X

Hi busybee, iv just had surgery this Wednesday and now home , now waiting on results and they said 3 weeks to me , I’m going to remain positive and try not to over think .. recovery going well as I came home last night and up doing little bits then sitting down again as I’m telling myself not to over do it . Good luck with everything . 

Hi Lauren, 

Thanks for letting me know! 

sending lots of positive thoughts your way! 
Glad to hear recovery is going well for you, really hope you can continue to heal well and hope you get some good news at the end! 

Thank you, and to you x

Thank you Busybee , it really is an awful time going through it all , my brain has been all over the place , I’m glad the surgery is over and hoping things stay the same stagec1a grade 2

I can totally understand. 
I’ve carried on as normal, work etc but I’m finding now that I’ve got a date for the op, and it’s less than 2 weeks away, I’m more distracted and feel like I have a million things to do and get sorted before hand but don’t have enough time between work etc. 

If you don’t mind me asking did you also have your ovaries removed? 

I have my fingers crossed for you that you get the best outcome possible. 

You will manage and just take it each day as it comes , as I have good and bad days ( I’m such an over thinker)

I had everything taken and one sentinel node . I’m 56 and luckily had my family so no need to keep my overies but I get that being young to have more children is such a harder decision and there are women on here that have been in the same position as you .

thanks Busybee

Hi Laurenj, well done on having had your op. As long as you’re not lifting heavy things or standing for hours on end, and resting when you feel you need to, you won’t be overdoing it, Are you managing to get out for walks? If not, I’d encourage you to pop out a couple of times a day. 

Thanks marmite , I only came home last night so going to get some fresh air tomorrow with a little walk and been walking about indoors but my belly’s feeling a bit sore now so I’m resting up .. I’ll go stir crazy if I stayed indoors lol 

I went out for a 5 minute walk as soon as I got home! And then 2 x 5 minute gentle strolls the next day. And built up from there. Standing up straight, holding your tummy in and moving around normally is what I’d recommend. Any aching is likely just muscular and the sooner you can get things tightening up again the stronger your muscles will become and hold everything in place. In a way it was easier for me as I was familiar with the pulls and aches as I’d had a caesarean in 1989 and knew I wouldn’t break if I stood up straight and knew I’d recover more quickly if I did. Walking helps the circulation get back to normal, helps digestion and the bowels, and also helps get the anaesthetic out of your lungs!